Lady Gaga
Warning: The biography is currently being rewritten to be more accurate, please correct any mistakes and help if you can. '' '''Stefani Germanotta' (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), who performs under the stage name''' Lady GaGa''' (Gaga), is an American Singer-Songwriter, Performance artist, Musician, and Disc Jockey. Biography Early Life Gaga was born on March 28, 1986 in New York City, New York, the eldest child of Joseph and Cynthia (née Bissett) Germanotta. She is mostly of Italian heritage with some French ancestry on her mothers side. She has a younger sister of six years, Natali. Early in her life music played a big influence as her father was in a cover band. Around the age of four, Gaga learned piano by ear and wrote her first song called "Dollar Bills". :"I still remember the first song I heard. My dad was listening to what I now know was Pink Floyd’s “Money,” and understanding only the sounds of the cash register in the intro, I wrote a song called “Dollar Bills” on my Mickey Mouse staff paper." By the time she was eleven, Gaga was set to join Julliard School in Manhattan, but instead attended the private Catholic school Convent of the Sacred Heart. She sang in a classic-rock cover band during her freshman year of high school at Convent of the Sacred Heart. She did covers of Led Zeppelin's songs along with Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane. She wrote her first piano ballad "To Love Again" at thirteen. Gaga met Don Lawrence when she was fourteen. :I was singing to myself in a shop down the street from my house, when the store owner, who happened to also be a musician, pulled me aside and slipped a phone number in my hand. He told me his uncle was a highly respected voice teacher who he thought would like to work with me. I called him up and remember his words, “I work with Grammy Award Winner Christina Aguilera, Bono of U2, Mick Jagger and as the list got larger I got more excited. Gaga began performing open mic nights at the same time. "These were jazz bars not sex clubs," she explains.'' "They would have open mic nights so my mother would take me along and say, 'My daughter's very young but she's very talented. I'll sit with her as she plays.' " :“She’d say to the manager, ‘Listen, I know she’s too young to be in here, and I’m too old to be in here, but she’s incredibly talented and she’s a singer-songwriter and can she sign up on your open-mic list?’ And we just sat and waited round for them to call my name.” '' Her parents were both very supportive of her. Gaga learned for some years with Lawrence and started writing music as an outlet and less of a hobby. At the age of seventeen, Gaga was one of twenty people in the world to have gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied music. She honed her writing skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion and socio-policital order. Music Career 2005-2006: Stefani Live Spring 2005, Gaga competed and placed in an NYU wide talent “Ultra Violet Live,” contest to benefit cancer, televised on NYU TV. However she withdrew from the New York University after a year in favour of what she saw as a more honest education, playing her trade on the Lower Lower East Side club scene. After her eighteen years old birthday, Gaga moved out of her parent's house without any financial support from them. During the summer, she began self-shopping and booking at several music venues in downtown New York City at the piano then with a band. By September, she decided to put her focus on putting a glammy band and recording a record. Gaga started to write and play piano-heavy solo songs for about a year with the band. Around September 2005, Gaga met Grandmaster Melle Mel and became a featured vocalist and co-writer for his hip hop artist children’s book album, “Scott and the Secret Dimension.” The audio book was only released November 13 of 2006 with a new title, "The Portal in the Park" and feature the young artist credited as Lady Ga Ga. She performed for the first time with the full band, at her home base The Bitter End in October. For the 60nd Annual Colombus Day Parade, she played No Floods live on NBC of which Maria Bartiromo said “''She’s only nineteen and what a voice". By November, with her band, she began recording her five tracks demo, Words with producer, Joe Vulpis. Slowly Gaga gained fans with her live performance and communicated with them with her own website, Stefani Music, on her MySpace and PureVolume page. On January 20, 2006, Gaga played at The Bitterend and sells out her five songs demo, Words. She continued to do concerts and writing music and by March, sold her first EP, Red and Blue at her home base, The Bitter End. 2006-2007: Becoming Lady GaGa The underground sensation was chosen by Bob Leone, National Projects Director of the renowned and celebrated Songwriters Hall of Fame, to be one of nine performers in the 2006 New Songwriters Showcase at the Cutting Room. She played "Hollywood" and almost overnight, Gaga signed a production contract with Sony's multi-platinum producer, Rob Fusari. One day, Gaga performed Again Again on the piano and her new producer, Rob Fusari said to her "''You are just so freakin' Freddie Mercury, you are so dramatic." He started calling her Gaga and she thought it was cool and later, her friends started calling her "Gaga" also. She then later added “Lady”, to feminize it. Together they wrote more polished songs but still somewhere between bittersweet rock ballads to power-pop rock. She started to perform as Lady Ga Ga/GaGa in late spring, early summer. In July, Wonderful gained web radio airplay on iWebRadio and peaked at number two. After a while she started to find her own music dull. "I was like, 'If it wasn't me, I wouldn't listen to this. I would be bored at this show'" she says. Finding herself surrounded by singers who all wrote the same style of music, she decided to do something fresh and provocative in the rock 'n roll underground: pop music. They started to created a unique electro disco pop sound. The duo labeled themselves Team Love Child because of Lady Gaga describing herself as the hypothetical lovechild of David Bowie and Jerry Lee Lewis. She performed regularity in the Lower East Side and gained a fan base and saw recognition for her clothes and shows. At that time, she had three jobs – Gaga interned at Famous Music, a music publishing division of Paramount Pictures, during the day and at night Gaga worked at restaurants or bars. Jody Gerson, co-president of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, recalls that she was driven to understand the publishing business from a young age. Gaga found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the vintage glam-rock of David Bowie and Queen into the mix. "Queen and David Bowie were the key for me...I didn't know what to do until I discovered Bowie and Queen", Gaga says. "When I was playing the New York rock clubs, a lot of record labels thought I was too theatrical. Then, when I auditioned for stage musicals, the producers said I was too pop". Because of her underground popularity, a representant from Island Def Jam asked her to perform at their office. While she sang, L.A. Reid heard Gaga and he said "I can hear you from my office, you're very loud" and that she was a star and signed her right on the spot, it was the sixth day of September 2006. Her first album was scheduled for May 2007. "But after he signed me, he never met with me. I used to wait outside his office for hours, hoping he'd take meetings with me about my songs, but it never happened. He eventually dropped me after three months." Even after hearing Beautiful, Dirty, Rich, "I was pretty devastated. I know what it's like being on a label when they don't quite get it." says Gaga of her original major label deal. Gaga didn't gave up music as she truly believe it's her destiny and decided to work harder. Around that time, she met with producer RedOne through their mutual management, New Heights. RedOne manager came to him and said If someone is good, it doesn't matter to me if that person has a deal. " Around that time, Lady Gaga dated the owner of the St. Jerome's in New York in 2006. In December, Lady Gaga met for the first date Lady Starlight who was go-go dancing on her birthday in the bar. They instantly clicked, "We were both ladies," Lady Starlight said, "She put a dollar bill in my panties and the rest is history." They started to work together because Gaga loved her whole aesthetic and said to her: "What do you think about what you're doing with what I'm doing?" She had already most of the songs (from The Fame) written and I really liked her personally, even if I'm not really into pop music." 2007–2008: The Fame :"I went back to my apartment. I played a show once a week. I started collaborating with my friend, Lady Starlight, and we would play show after show after. I started getting prepped for a performance." –'Lady Gaga ' Lady Starlight helped Lady GaGa create her on stage fashions while creating burlesque shows at dive bars with drag queens and go-go dancers. During that time, she did also go-go dance to her songs played. When Gaga's father saw her performance art, "He couldn't look at me for a few months," she admits of her early experimentation. "I was in leather thongs, so it was hard for him — he just didn't understand." Eventually, he restarted to support his child and now they are proud of her. The pair collaborated on many projects such as “Lady GaGa and the Starlight Revue”- a low-fi tribute to 1970’s variety acts which featured Lady GaGa on synth, Lady Starlight spinning beats, choreographed go-go moves, shiny disco balls, and hairspray, lit on fire and sprayed into the audience. They did also "New York Street Revival and Trash Dance" together for a month each week doing a show. Somewhere in 2007, Rob Fusari sent some songs to his friends, Vincent Herbert of Streamline Records. After, Vincent went to one of Lady Gaga with Lady Starlight burlesque show and he said to her: "I got you" and signed her on his label. Gaga also sparked the interest of Interscope's Chairman Jimmy Iovine in 2007. He offered her a label deal via Streamline/Interscope shortly after her performance at Lollapalooza with Lady Starlight in August. At that time, she learned a lot about songwriting and worked with a number of producers and trying to build a name for herself. Jody Gerson signed Gaga’s publishing deal with Sony/ATV. She said to Billboard Magazine, that she had faith Gaga would break out and become an in-demand writer and star. “''She blew me away from the moment I met her,” Gerson says. “''She was already signed to Interscope, and we are so lucky to all be on the same page and have a great working relationship.” During the fall, RedOne played "Boys Boys Boys" to Akon with whom he have a production company called RedOneKonvict. Akon was so excited that he wanted her as writer for artists on Universal (Nicole Scherzinger’s solo project, New Kids on the Block). They met in November 2007 and started writing together and she learned a lot about songwriting during that time. 2008-2009: The Fame In January, Lady Gaga had a goodbye party with her lowersides friends of New York the night before and someone from the label picked her up from the bar to the airplane. She then met RedOne in the studio and still hungover, she wrote Just Dance in ten minutes as "a happy record". In a week, they wrote together Poker Face ''and ''LoveGame. After that, she signed a recording deal with Interscope and began officially the production of her debut album. Also in January, she was sent to write songs with Akon for Tami Chynn, an artist signed to Konvict Muzik in Atlanta. For the first time, Akon recognized her vocal abilities during her singing of a reference vocal to one of his tracks in the studio. : "When we were working, Akon would say, 'Get in the booth and cut these vocals,' and he'd always tell me I could really sing. So he decided he wanted to be a part of my music," Gaga said about working with Akon, who ultimately convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to sign her to a joint deal with Konlive. "He spoke to Jimmy, and we decided to become a big family." —Lady Gaga As a result, she was commissioned by Interscope to write for labelmates New Kids on the Block with RedOne, Nicole Scherzinger's solo album and the Pussycat Dolls with Rodney Jerkins and some others with Akon. Two of hers songs was picked by Britney Spears and recorded but only one was released, Quicksand as a bonus track in Europe. Gaga also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum. He also introduced Space Cowboy to Gaga and the two became friends. She began to work with a collective called the Haus of Gaga, who collaborate with her on her clothing, stage sets, and sounds. On 8 April, Just Dance was released as the lead single for her debut album, ''The Fame''. The music video of the song was shot on the 28th. For about a year, she hustled the radio and television to get her single played. In May, Martin Kierszenbaum introduced Space Cowboy to Gaga and the two become friends instantly. : “''Nobody knew who she was, she was just starting up, and we spoke on the phone, we got on really, really well — it was amazing! We figured out that we shared pretty much the same experiences; we’d been doing similar things on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Then I got invited to the studio to write some songs with Lady Gaga; we did “Starstruck”, we did a song called “Christmas Tree” She’s super-creative, she’s amazing — the best writer I’d ever seen, and best performer.” —'Space Cowboy''' In May, Gaga began a promo and club tour worldwide that lasted five months. She worked with a couple of female dancers and DJ VH1 on her live set. In June, Space Cowboy took the position of DJ. Also in June, the Transmission Gagavision started as weekly webisode featuring Gaga and her staff and traced their adventure around the world. After a while, the webisode shown was from event many months earlier. On the 6th, Lady Gaga did her first performance on TV for Logo's NewNowNext Awards with Just Dance. Lady Gaga performed Just Dance at the 57th Miss Universe Pageant in Vietnam. Michael Schwandt, the choreographer of the competition, is a big fans of her and suggested Gaga to the organization in order to replace a big band. A month later on the 19th, her debut album, The Fame was first released in Canada. A short film was also released to promote her music, The Fame: Part One. ABC channel asked Gaga to create a music video for Beautiful, Dirty, Rich in order to promote the new season of Dirty Sexy Money. It was released as a promotional single from the album on September 16, 2008. The two months after, she went on her first ever concert tour with fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block. Gaga started her stint with New Kids on the Block in Los Angeles on October 8, and continued through the end of November. She appeared as a featured guest on the song "Big Girl Now" from their new album, The Block. The second single, Poker Face, was released on September 23, 2008, and has reached number one in nearly twenty countries, including almost all major music markets in the world. A music video was shot on October 3 at the luxury villa on bwin PokerIsland in Malibu. In late October, Gaga released The Fame in the United States, where it debuted at number seventeen on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 24,000 units, and has thus far peaked at number four. On December 5, 2008, Gaga was added to the BBC Sound of 2009 longlist, which features the best rising music stars. 2009-2010: The Fame Ball *In the United States, "Just Dance" was a sleeper hit, spending almost five months on the Billboard Hot 100 before finally reaching the summit of the chart in January of 2009. *First performance on UK television *Shot Eh, Eh / LoveGame music video *Continued the WDT with the PCD *Started her first tour, The Fame Ball. *Music video Paparazzi *MTV Awards& Much Music awards *Became the first artist to have four number one from a debut album. *The Fame Kills (annonce and annulation) *Bad Romance *The Fame Monster *The Monster Ball Tour *Music videos (Bad Romance) Gaga was confirmed as the support act for Pussycat Dolls on their Europe and Oceania arena dates from January until May 2009. The World Domination Tour started in Aberdeen, Scotland on January 18, and ends in Perth, Australia on May 30. Gaga's "Just Dance" received a nomination for the Best Dance Recording, but lost to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". On February 18, 2009, Gaga, along with Brandon Flowers of rock band The Killers, joined on stage with electronic dance duo Pet Shop Boys at the 2009 BRIT Awards. Pet Shop Boys performed a medley of their hits when Gaga and Flowers joined for the final number, the 1985 hit single "West End Girls". Gaga's first North American tour, The Fame Ball Tour started on March 12, 2009 and was critically appreciated. Beforehand, Gaga promised her fans that they can expect plenty of high drama from her upcoming performances. She said, "I consider what I do to be more of an Andy Warhol concept: pop performance art, multimedia, fashion, technology, video, film. And it's all coming together, and it's going to be traveling museum show." For the first time, Lady Gaga appeared on Saturday Night Live, in a comic skit with Madonna and performing a part of her upcoming single "Bad Romance", from her forthcoming studio album titled The Fame Monster. Gaga attended the Human Rights Campaign's "National Dinner" on October 10th, 2009, before marching in the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. "In the music industry there's still a tremendous amount of accommodation of homophobia. ... So I'm taking a stand," she commented. She then started to perform a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" while changing some lyrics to reference Matthew Shepard's 1998 murder, the college student's death which has been a rallying cry for the gay rights movement. "I'm not going to play one of my songs tonight, because tonight is not about me," Gaga said before she sat in front of a grand piano to sing and play, "It's about you." In November 2009 Gaga announced the release of The Fame Monster, a collection of eight songs that dealt with the darker side of fame as experienced by Gaga over the course of 2008–2009 while travelling around the world, and are expressed through a monster metaphor. "Bad Romance" was released as the first single from the album. It topped the Canadian chart while reaching the top ten in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden. Gaga also announced The Monster Ball Tour associated with the release. 2010-Present: In January, Gaga continued the first leg of The Monster Ball Tour accross the United States. At the Consumer Electronics Show on January 7 2010, she was named creative director for a line of imaging products for Polaroid. She commented that she will create fashion, technology and photography products. "I'm working on bringing the instant film camera back as part of the future." On January 14, 2010, Gaga had to cancel the Monster Ball concert in West Lafayette, Indiana, due to health concerns; she was having trouble breathing in the hours leading up to the show, and paramedics later stated that she was suffering from an irregular heartbeat as a result of dehydration and exhaustion. The next day, she was scheduled to perform on Oprah and did a live medley. The three following concerts were cancelled and the tour restarted in New York on January 20. *Shooting of the music video for Telephone on January 28. *Grammy perforfomance and won 2 Grammys. *Start of the revised Monster Ball in the United Kingdom (February) Awards :Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Lady Gaga Discography :Main article: Lady GaGa discography , GaGa songwriting discography songwriting for other artists Studio album *The Fame *The Fame Monster Performances :See "Concerts" in the menu or this link *'2005-2006:' Stefani Live and also with the SGBand *'2007:' Lady GaGa & Lady Starlight with various shows *'2008:' New Kids on the Block: Live as Opening Act *'2009:' **World Domination Tour as Opening Act **The Fame Ball Tour **Fame Kills (cancelled) **The Monster Ball *'2010:' **The Monster Ball Related *MySpace *Official Website Category:Haus Members Category:SGBand